Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/597087
8 The PCB Magazine • November 2015 by Patty Goldman I-connect007 technIcal eDItor Patty's PersPective Data, Data and More Data! ColuMn It seems that whenever I'm working on a magazine topic, suddenly it's everywhere. So much so that I begin to wonder who was in on our topic discussion. It was that way with this month's theme, "The Data Factor(y): The Power of Data." Articles suddenly seemed to be appearing all over the place, especially on the topic of the Internet of Things (IoT). Yeah, they were always there; I just started noticing them. Speaking of the IoT, I found myself wonder- ing, "What does that really mean and how does it affect us?" I read an article at Forbes.com, "A Simple Explanation of the 'Internet of Things'" that offered a solid explanation [1] , which really helped. Basically, it's all about connections con- necting…electronically, of course. Personally, I haven't felt a great need to wear an armband or have my front door lock automatically (I don't even like my car's locks activating automati- cally) or have my washing machine start up at some odd time. I have timers on lamps, and I use a few auto sensors for other things. Isn't that enough? Apparently, not anymore! We did a survey on our topic this month, as we do every month (sent to our subscribers). You can see some of the results in Figures 1 and 2. We also asked an open-ended question about your "largest issues" with data. Your answers seemed to revolve around the accuracy of data collected (and whether it is the right data), lack of time, collecting in real-time, and then how to organize and analyze what has been collected.